Thanks to the iPad I have moved further than ever away from using paper. When I want a new book I buy it to read with my Kindle app. When I want to take notes in a meeting I use one of a few different iPad apps. When I am doing serious writing I use the app Notebooks and then sync it to my MobileMe account so that it is available everywhere. When I need to create a voice note I do it in Evernote. That way it is available to me everywhere and, thanks to new integration with the Voice2Note service, it gets transcribed into text as well. And when it comes to magazines… it is all digital for me now thanks to Zinio.

Well Zinio just rolled out a new Rolling Stones special issue that is amazing. More on that in a minute but first a quick update on Zinio’s growth since the iPad’s release.

According to Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio’s Global Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer the growth has been “Amazing!”. The range of titles offered within the app has exploded, especially in the areas of news, gossip and fitness magazines. Just a quick look under the “Show” tab of the iPad app shows the extent of the growth. Moreover, the volume of sales for specific titles has been remarkable Mullen said. Some titles have already seen a 50% uptick in subscriptions but many have seen an astounding 2000% increase. She was also quick to point out that Zinio remains the most convenient and accessible way to buy a magazine subscription on the iPad*. (According to news sources over the weekend publishers aren’t happy with this but, personally, I would much prefer one app with various magazine subscriptions than one app per magazine on my ever-more-crowded iPad screen. Moreover, I love being able to buy my magazines once and then read them on any device that has Zinio’s app.)

And for those who are frustrated with the speed (or slowness) of the app’s backup time you will be pleased to know that Mullen told me a patch is being submitted that will make things far faster.

As for the special Rolling Stone edition, Zinio and Rolling Stone have worked together to “take magazine enjoyment to a whole new level”. The magazine has released a special edition of the “Top 500 songs of all time”. What makes this special and new is that while reading it on your iPad, iTouch or iPhone you can listen to iTunes clips of all 500 songs and buy them. (Correction, you can listen to all 500 songs except those songs by the Beatles- booooooo!!!!! Bad surviving Beatles… bad Beatles.)

As Mullen notes,

We do a lot of press releases about new clients coming on board, but I must say, when my 67 year old dad and my 7 year old daughter spend 3 hours together enjoying my iPad listening to songs, I know we have done something right (or at least Rolling Stone has).

The special edition magazine can be found here and there is a preview available right in the Zinio app on your iPhone or iPad. It costs $9.95 but is bundled with a subscription for just $26.95. The bundle can be found here.

Are you using Zinio on your iPad? If so, what magazines are you reading?

The full release follows.

ROLLING STONE AND ZINIO LAUNCH FIRST INTEGRATED IPAD AND ITUNES ISSUE — Special Issue Allows Fans to Listen, Purchase Top 500 Songs from iTunes While They Read –

SAN FRANCISCO (August 3, 2010) – Zinio, the global leader in digital-publishing technology and services, today introduced a new, interactive release of Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Songs of All Time on its cross-device ZINIO UNITY? platform. Using the Zinio App for the iPad (zinio.com/ipad), the iconic music title’s digital version will allow music enthusiasts to sample and purchase music with a swipe of a finger. The interactive edition will be available on other platforms as well, including Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. While fans read about legends ranging from Bob Dylan and Beyoncé to Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin, they can preview and purchase the Rolling Stone Special Collectors Edition’s song recommendations via iTunes.

“Our 500 Greatest Songs of All Time is the ultimate playlist for any music fan,” stated Rolling Stone Executive Editor Jason Fine. “These are all the songs you need to have on your iPad. The issue also features the stories behind each song, plus photos from the Rolling Stone archive. With Zinio, you can listen to the songs while you read, giving our audience an exciting way to experience the list.”

“Partnering with Wenner Media for Rolling Stone to create an interactively enhanced edition is an exciting demonstration of how published content and technology can create a seamless and multi-sensory experience for engaging consumers,” said Rich Maggiotto, President & CEO, Zinio. “We are laser-focused on working with innovative publishers like Wenner to deploy these types of heightened experiences, globally and cross- platform, to increase user engagement and utility with editorial and advertising.”

To preview this dynamic issue please visit: http:www.zinio.com/top500songs on your PC, or visit the featured section in Zinio iPad App.

Zinio launched its free App for iPad in the U.S. on April 3rd and overseas on May 28th, respectively, and is available from the App Store on iPad or at itunes.com/appstore, extending the pay-once-read-anywhere reading platform. This approach offers the unique benefit of letting readers pay once for a magazine subscription or single issue, then enjoy that publication across platforms and devices like their iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Windows, Mac and Linux PC, with new mobile platforms coming soon.

About Zinio: Zinio is the world’s largest newsstand and bookstore. With its many digital products and services, Zinio creates better ways for people to discover published content, get more of it and do more with it. Now, readers can purchase content once to be read on any screen. Zinio provides the ability to shop for, search inside, read, share and save digital content in 23 local newsstands in any country in the world. Through the ZINIO UNITY™ reading platform, readers can move seamlessly within each publication page between text, interactive graphics, animated illustrations, videos and much more. Offering hundreds of thousands of the best digital issues, Zinio’s e-stores and applications are revolutionizing reading. Founded in 2001 and privately held, Zinio is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona and Taipei.

* Edit note: As comments on this post have pointed out, there are other ways to subscribe to magazines on the iPad, but as a rule, Zinio is the most convenient.

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”)Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him.

Thanks for the correction. I made some corrections within the post itself drugs.

As a related sidenote — personally the idea of having various specific apps for a number of different magazines doesn’t attract me at all. I would personally much prefer to have one application that has all of my magazines and handles all of my subscriptions and purchases. Curious what you think about that.

I’m confused by your revision. Did Jeanniey say that zinio is the “only way to buy a magazine subscription on the iPad”, or the “only most convenient and accessible way to buy a magazine subscription on the iPad.”?